This is a four-flat apartment building (a continuation of the Alkali Flat neighborhood of Sacramento) . A local contractor named George W. Martin secured a building permit on Harriet Cox’s behalf in January 1910. As described in the advertisements, they were “above-average” apartments, each equipped with a “Holmes Disappearing Bed’ as well as “basics” such as closets, cupboards, hot and cold running water, gas and electric lights, and a gas heater.
The street front of the apartment building has a symmetrical design that exudes graceful simplicity, with its double decker porch at the center, topped by a triangular pediment, and flanked by large single sash-windows at each side. The squared stacked porch columns have simple capitals and minimal paneled detailing. The balustrades are also square. A shallow pyramidal roof sits atop moderately flared boxed eaves. The exterior walls, now almost completely covered with smooth stucco, originally may have had exposed wooden siding (shingles are still visible around the attic window in the front gable). A central stairway leads to a front door that opens onto a stair hall where the four apartment entries meet, two apartments on each story. The rooms inside each flat have a fine display of woodwork, from the floors, to the tall baseboards, to the built-in shelving and cabinetry, including he dining-room units with the disappearing beds mentioned above, still in working condition.
How luxurious! Indoor plumbing! “Disappearing bed” I was thinking of a Murphy bed, but I see how this differs from a Murphy bed! Interesting